NICE ATTACK. The trial of the Nice attack opens Monday at the special assize court in Paris and apprehension is mounting among the victims who wish to testify. Who are the defendants? What happened on July 14, 2016? All info.
[Mis à jour le 1er septembre 2022 à 17h29] Six years later. The trial of theNice attack perpetrated on July 14, 2016, will open this Monday, September 5 at the special assize court in Paris. The victims have been waiting for six years to obtain justice, but a few days before the opening of the trial, apprehension is felt and, above all, painful memories come to the surface. However, this will not stop the victims and civil parties from testifying at the bar to tell their story and the night of the tragedy from their point of view. This step, as difficult as it is, is above all essential for the reconstruction process for some. Among the testimonies of the victims, several could come from children, said Hager Ben Aouissi, mother victim of the attack and founder of the association “A way of children”, on BFM Nice Côte d’Azur August 30.
Children who wish to do so will be able to testify at the trial of the Nice attack without going to the Assize Court. They will tell their story from “a broadcast room of the Nice courthouse” and their story will be broadcast in the courtroom. The trial promises to be difficult for all the victims and the 865 civil parties, more particularly for the children, some of whom have suffered after-effects and for whom the hearings can be “a vector for the reactivation of post-traumatic stress, anxiety” according to Hager Ben Aouissi. Also, specific support may be offered to them thanks to the presence of associations and psychologists, among others.
More than difficult, the trial of the Nice attack is likely to be frustrating in the absence of the terrorist assailant, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, shot dead by the police after the attack. Without the interrogation of the author of the facts “there will be a lot of questions that no one will be able to answer”, warned with theAFP Me Eric Morain, lawyer for the National Federation of Victims of Attacks, an association that is a civil party to the trial. Still, the detailed profile of the man should be done and eight defendants will be tried, including three for “criminal terrorist association”.
When and where does the Nice attack trial take place?
The trial is due to start on Monday September 5 for two to three months. This first day of the historic procedure will be followed closely but it will be necessary to wait until the next day for the hearings to begin and for the witnesses to come to speak at the bar. Throughout the trial hearings will only take place from Tuesday to Friday. Among those heard will be seven of the eight defendants, three of whom will take place in the secure box while four others will appear free. The eighth defendant is on the run but under an arrest warrant.
It is far from Nice, a city devastated by the terrorist attack of July 14, 2016, that justice will be done on this tragedy. The trial of the July 14 attack will take place in Paris, in the salle des pas perdus of the courthouse on the Ile de la Cité, which has been converted into the special assize court of Paris. This courtroom with a capacity of 500 people has already hosted another historic trial, that of the November 13 attacks. Fourteen other rooms where the debates will be broadcast will make it possible to accommodate more people, in particular the victims, their families and the civil parties who will have made the trip. With these premises, more than 2,000 people will be able to be accommodated and attend the hearings. A significant but necessary capacity in the face of the 865 people and associations who filed civil suits and the more than 2,500 victims of the tragedy which left 86 dead and more than 400 injured.
The trial of the July 14 attack broadcast in Nice
Not all the victims and civil parties will make the trip to Paris and participate in the hearings of the Nice attack trial. They will however be able to follow the testimonies live thanks to the retransmission of the hearings and the debates in a “dedicated room” assured the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti on July 14, 2022, day of commemoration of the tragedy and tribute to the victims, to Nice morning. West France evoked the Palais des Congrès in Nice, on June 29.
Regarding the retransmission, the Keeper of the Seals added that the entire trial can be followed by the civil parties who request it on a secure web radio. The device was put in place for the first time during the trial of the November 13 attacks, but this time the retransmission “will be [également] accessible from abroad” and provided with a translation. A detail that is very important for this case in which some of the 86 deceased people were of 19 different nationalities.
Who are the defendants in the Nice attack trial?
They are eight defendants to be sent back to the special assize court of Paris but the author of the terrorist attack will be absent. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian and the driver of the truck and responsible for the terrorist attack, was shot dead by the security forces on the evening of the July 14, 2016 attack. identified eight people who had a role in the preparation of the attack. They are seven men and a woman, all members of the killer’s entourage or intermediaries involved in the arms trafficking in which Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel took part.
Of these eight people, three are appearing for “criminal terrorist conspiracy” : Chokri Chafroud, Ramzi Arefa and Mohamed Ghraieb. They were first prosecuted for “complicity” but the investigation failed to prove that they were aware of the terrorist attack and the charge was ultimately dismissed. However, they remain suspected of having “contributed to the preparation of this passage to the criminal act” when they were “fully aware” of the adherence of the assailant “to the ideology of armed jihad”. All three risk thirty years of criminal imprisonment and a fine of €500,000.
The other five defendants Artan Henaj, Enkeledja Zace, Maksim Celaj and Endri Elezi and Brahim Tritrou are tried for common law offenses and mainly suspected of being part of an arms trafficking network and of having supplied weapons to Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel. Brahim Tritou, on the run since July 9, 2020 and more specifically accused of having played the role of intermediary between the terrorist and the arms suppliers, will not be present at the trial.
What happened during the July 14, 2016 attack in Nice?
The Nice attack is still in the minds of all those present during the attack or who witnessed the tragedy. The attack lasted about twenty minutes. It is around 10:40 p.m. on July 14, 2016, when a 19-tonne white truck drives at full speed on the Promenade des Anglais where more than 30,000 people are gathered and waiting for the fireworks. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian alone in the vehicle, is the driver. Coming from the Magnan district, the man rushes for two kilometers and enters the area made exceptionally pedestrian for the fireworks of the National Day. Arrived in front of the Hotel Negresco, the driver opened fire several times on the police and continued on his way for 300 meters before his vehicle was immobilized by the police in front of the Palais de la Méditerranée. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, who got out of the truck, refused to respond to the summons of the police and was shot dead by two corporals around 11 p.m.
It was during his mad and murderous race that Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel killed 86 people and injured more than 400. The security forces present for the security of the event quickly receive reinforcements in the minutes following the attack. Around 11:20 p.m., while the terrorist was neutralized, a security perimeter was set up near Place Masséna. Several establishments are requisitioned to take care of the victims: the High Club is transformed into a field hospital and the University Center of the Mediterranean into a psychological cell.
In the crowd as around the Promenade des Anglais, onlookers are shaken and terrified by the scene. Some report elements on the apparent desire of the driver to kill and on his possible radicalization, like Pépé who testifies in Nice morning. “We heard Allahu akbar several times, three times,” said the man who witnessed the tragedy from his balcony. “I saw that he was driving to the right, to the left, in all directions, to aim for as many visitors as possible. It was horrible, there were children on the ground, in pieces, women, people elderly … It is not easy, neither to live, nor to tell”, he adds.
Was the Nice attack a terrorist attack?
Only a few hours after the attack in Nice, on July 14, 2016, François Hollande, then President of the Republic, judged that “the terrorist character [de l’attaque] cannot be denied”. Occurring a few months after the attacks of November 13, 2015, the attack carried out on the Promenade des Anglais was quickly linked to terrorism. Hypothesis reinforced by the claim of the attack by the Islamic State (IS) on its Al-Bayan radio station two days later, IS called Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel a “soldier [menant] the operation in response to calls to target nationals of coalition countries”.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office with national jurisdiction for terrorism had been seized of the case and had entrusted the investigations to the investigators of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI). . The first elements had not made it possible to establish a link between the killer and a terrorist group but had found evidence of the radicalization of the thirties, in particular by the presence of photos of actions and the flag of the IS on his computer. personal. Research had also found traces of contacts between Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel and personalities known to the DGSI as radical Islamists according to the Telegram. The perpetrator of the attack was not known to the French or Tunisian intelligence services before the 2016 attack, according to the Guardian.
Bernard Cazeneuve, Minister of the Interior in 2016, described Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlelqui as “[semblant] to have radicalized very quickly” and evoked “an attack of a new type” committed by “individuals sensitive to the message of Daesh (Arabic acronym for the Islamic State) who engage in extremely violent actions without necessarily having participated in combat, without necessarily having been trained”. The trial of the Nice attack will return to the terrorist nature of the attack of July 14, 2016, in particular via the judgment of the three main defendants prosecuted for “criminal terrorist association”.